BIG RAPIDS, MI -- Ferris State University President David Eisler said a 2.5 percent tuition increase may be a burden for some students, but the university is offering more financial aid to help soften the blow.

With the increase in effect, tuition at Ferris will cost $357 per-credit hour. That’s up from $348 per-credit hour during the 2011-12 academic year.

“I believe this is the second lowest tuition increase in the state so I’m really quite pleased that we were able to defer costs and help our students,” Eisler said.

In an attempt to help cash-strapped students, the university is increasing financial aid to students by $400,000 to $500,000 to help cover the increased cost of tuition, he said. In 2010, the average student loan debt at Ferris was $35,468 -- the highest of Michigan's 15 public universities, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

“When you look at Ferris, over 50 percent of our students qualify for Pell Grants, which means they have significant financial needs,” Eisler said. “It’s our students who are paying these bills and we’re trying to keep these dollars low to help our students.”

Eisler said the tuition increase would have been larger if not for increased funding from the state and internal cost savings measures. The university, for example, shaved approximately $1 million in energy costs from next year’s budget.

“Because we were able to cut $1 million worth of utility costs, we were able to actually raise tuition less than what our increased costs were for next year,” Eisler said.

However, increases in the university’s budget related to staff and compensation, in part, prompted the need for the increase, he said.

“Education is a people business,” Eisler said. “People costs are a major part of that.”

Besides Ferris, at least nine of Michigan’s 15 public universities have passed tuition increases for next fall, according to the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan.

Of those nine schools, all except one – Central Michigan University – had higher tuition increases than Ferris. Central raised tuition by 1.96 percent, according to the President’s Council.

Michael Boulus, the group’s executive director, said a $36 million increase in state’s higher education budget led many schools to increase tuition at a smaller level than previous years.

Last year, Ferris raised tuition by 5.1 percent.

Under the state’s budget, Ferris received a $1.6 million boost, bringing its total budget to $42.9 million. That doesn’t include $9 million the state will divide amongst universities that keep tuition increases at or below 4 percent.

Many schools, however, are still reeling after years of cuts to the state’s higher education budget.

“We work very hard on keeping costs down but we also want to keep up quality,” Boulus said.

“But the bottom line is we just got hammered,” he said, referring to drops in the higher education budget.